There are tons of depressing statistics that you get hammered with when you start looking into poverty around the world:
Almost half the world lives on less than $2.50 a day.
Each night over 300 million children go to bed hungry.
Every 7 seconds a child dies from hunger related problems.
At any given time approximately half of the people living in developing nations are suffering from health problems related to water and sanitation deficits.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century without being able to read a book or sign their name.
1 in 3 kids in the developing world lives without adequate shelter.
There are plenty more statistics to prove that there is a serious poverty problem facing our world today. Often though, these statistics are more than we can handle, or even imagine. I think many people get depressed when they look into these problems. Often by seeing the magnitude of this problem we doubt that there is a way to fix it. We think it's too big for us to make a difference. God's will will be done though! There are thousands of organizations already pouring time, effort and money into trying to fix this problem. Why are these attempts not working? There is much depth to all of the problems our world is facing, some comes from the government, or lack thereof, some is from the economy, some is due to the people themselves, and some comes from unknown or varying causes. Along with all of these causes there is nearly always an organization working to solve the problem, but all of the problems are intertwined and the groups working to solve them must also join together
in order to fix the entire problem. You may be able to feed all the children in a country, but if they still lack education how are they going to be able to work to feed their families and boost the economy? Or perhaps you can educate all of the children in a third world nation, but if the government doesn't improve in order to provide peace and protection all of those well educated young adults will end up fighting for their lives. We can't just fix global poverty by improving one problem, and there isn't an organization big enough to fix all of the world's problems, so how is this to be handled? The solution we feel God pressing on our hearts is unity. If we can get at least most of the organizations currently working individually to work together we can have a greater effect on the overall problem. This goal may seem farfetched to the average person, but with God anything is possible! This unity will not only require organizations working together,
but also churches and individuals getting involved. Organizations cannot stand on their own. They function thanks to the support of churches and people. If the people supporting these organizations will look at the goal rather than the group trying to solve it they will be far more likely to see the need for more than one organization. Our hope is to get people fired up to tell their friends, church leaders, and even government officials of this plan. Anyone can help by spreading the word! Once the forces behind these organizations believe in a solution the organizations will be able to follow suit. When people work together they produce greater results than when they work on their own! Like about five days ago I was going to move some friends. I invited some friends to come along and help. When we got there I was very glad I did! There is no way I could have finished all that needed to be done by myself, and even if I could have it would have taken me a few days. I noticed
as we were working how much more we got done when we were working together. Some of the things that needed to be carried were too heavy for one person to carry, or too big. I think it is the same way with missions and with life. Sometimes there are just things that are too big for one mission organization to do on their own! Such as the poverty of some countries! Have you ever tried lifting something that you can't lift and even if it was cut in half you couldn't, but if you and another person work together to carry the whole thing you can lift it? Most of the time two people can get done three times the amount that one can!! Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work..." Now think, if we were to get a 1,000 people to work together, what all do you think we could get done? What if we were to get 100 missions organizations and churches to work together on one mission!!! What do you think we could get done? I know it will not be an easy thing to do, I know a lot of people disagree on specfic beliefs, but if we are all serving one God, are small differences so important that we can't work together? My friends and I have different beliefs, but we didnt let that stop us from working together and helping the people!! Why can't we get our churches to work together?? We are THE church! When it all comes down to it, we are not "churches", but we are one body of Christ. Jesus prayed "that they may all be one". Perhaps we should give that a try? Please give us lots of feedback. We want ideas and we want to know what you think!!!!
written by Ashley and Nicholas
